INTHESPOTLIGHT By Jen Boyer
Robert Burns, Recipient of HAI Pilot
Safety Award He flew 31,000 hours in a career without an accident or incident.
R
OBERT BURNS, 88, of Charlotte, North Carolina, accomplished something no other pilot has achieved: over his career, he flew
31,000 hours without an accident or incident. The mili- tary and, later, power-line utility pilot certainly had his share of emergencies, yet he handled each one without mishap. He was recognized for this unequaled accom- plishment with an HAI Pilot Safety Award at HAI HELI- EXPO 2023 in Atlanta, Georgia, in March. ROTOR caught up with Burns to learn about his expe- riences as a pilot and the secret to his astounding achievement.
ROTOR: What sparked your interest in flying? Burns: I’m an Iowa farm boy, raised on a farm with cows and machinery. We used to take summer vacations in Minnesota on Kabetogama Lake. They had amphibi- ous-plane concessions there, and as I recall, when I was
10 years old, my dad said, “Well, I’m not going up in that thing, but you kids can.”
My sister and I took a ride in one. The pilot let me sit
next to him. He had to kind of sway the airplane to even- tually leap out of the water. He just kind of pulled the yoke back and forth. He said it really took some finesse to get it off the ground. I thought, well, that looks like that would be a challenge. So that was my first exposure to flying, and I thought that could be something to look into for a career option. After high school, I did two years of college, then joined the [US] army. Back then, there was compulsory military service for two years. The military recruiter saw I was mechanically inclined, having worked on a farm with all the machinery. He started telling me about the helicopter, and he said that might be a way of the future for me. He said he couldn’t guarantee I’d get into flight school but he could guarantee I could be a mechanic and
HAI President and CEO James Viola (left) and Senior
Director of Safety Chris Hill present
Robert Burns (center) with the HAI Pilot
Safety Award at HAI HELI-EXPO 2023. (HAI/f-stop
Photography) 20 ROTOR JUNE 2023
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68
